The EU-funded project “Forward Looking at the Offshore Renewable Energies” (FLORES) feeds into the European Pact for Skills. It promotes a strong large-scale partnership to foster upskilling and reskilling of Europeans from all ages in Offshore Renewable Energies (ORE).
As part of this cross-country initiative, the FLORES team has conducted a skills intelligence analysis, assessing the current skills demand and supply, and comparing the two in order to identify and highlight existing gaps and shortages that need to be addressed.
“Skills development in the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) sector is a high priority on the EU political agenda, as clearly reflected in the recently published European Wind Power Action Plan and the Communication on achieving the EU’s offshore wind ambitions. Understanding the current state-of-play and guiding actions to address significant existing gaps is invaluable, and this is where this report contributes. It performs a skills intelligence analysis, assessing the demand and supply of skills in the sector, and by taking a comparative approach, it identifies the current mismatches and highlights the most critical gaps and shortages that need to be addressed”.
Dr. Eleftherios Sdoukopoulos, Senior Researcher at Hellenic Institute of Transport, lead author of the report
Methodology
For this report, the FLORES team has conducted desk-research activities and collected data from both established and emerging ORE markets across the EU. With all the available information, they have assesed skills demand and supply.
Analysis of demanded skills
The ORE value chain and the 174 corresponding occupational profiles identified, based on ESCO classification, served as the main reference layers for the analysis. 981 job vacancies posted in an 8-month period in 11 European countries were analysed for identifying occupational profiles in higher demand and hard & soft skills, knowledge, experiences, qualifications and language skills mostly requested.
Analysis of skills supply
On the supply side, the FLORES researchers identified 398 relevant educational and training programmes and courses spread along 13 European countries. Those programmes and courses, which have been included in the MarineTraining platform, were analysed in detail in terms of their type, format, characteristics, target audience and learning outcomes.
Close comparison of the results of skills supply and demand, enabled to draw valuable conclusions on the actions to be performed for reconciling differences and thus equipping the market with a more skilled workforce.
Skills most needed
The job profiles most searched for in the ORE industry are:
- Project managers were found to be the industry’s top priority
- Followed by ORE technicians.
- Engineers, of different specialization, accounted for half of the top 10 in demand occupational profiles
- Software developers, purchasers and ORE plant operators completed the top 10 list.
To perform these jobs, the skills demanded by industry are:
- Project and stakeholder management skills were found to be transversely requested for technical occupational profiles.
- Greater emphasis is also now given on QA/QC and QHSE-related skills that apply across different operations and corresponding occupational profiles
- Soft skills are also acknowledged equally important to hard skills.
- Communication and collaboration (internal and external) skills were required in all job vacancies assessed
- The demand was great also for adaptivity, problem-solving and candidates being open-minded, detail- and results-oriented, and self-motivated.
- IT skills (at least basic ones) have become a prerequisite in the large majority of relevant occupational profiles (e.g. for monitoring performance, reporting results, managing documentation, etc.), while proficiency in using specialized software (e.g. CAD, ERP, etc.) was requested in several cases.
Most common training
While the needs from ORE industry are clear, the FLORES research had a look at the most common training programmes currently taught across Europe, to see if they actually match the real needs of the sector.
Level of trainings
Most of the identified programmes and courses were in higher education, primarily at the M.Sc. level (46%) and then at the B.Sc. (23%) and Ph.D. levels (13%). Short-cycle tertiary educational programmes and courses also represented a significant share (17%), while very few post-secondary non-tertiary programmes and courses were identified (1%).
Language and location of trainings
Most programmes and courses are offered in English (59%) and opt for on-site teaching (49%). Online programmes and courses have grown in number (29%), while very often a blended format is deployed (22%).
Most programmes and courses offer competences and capacities that are applicable across all different ORE technologies. However, some are more targeted emphasizing on a particular technology. This is mostly the case for offshore wind, with 14% of the identified programmes and courses addressing this technology.
Occupation profiles addressed
Overall, the identified programmes and courses addressed 43 occupational profiles, 90% of which are technical profiles.
- Renewable energy engineers are the main focus, while energy engineers and ORE engineers are also addressed by many programmes and courses (14% and 10% respectively).
- Interestingly enough, many programmes, particularly those related to safety, provide qualifications and competences for emergency response workers, an occupational profile initially not included in occupational profiles identified as corresponding to the ORE value chain.
- Other occupational profiles adequately covered by the identified programmes and courses, in descending order, include: environmental engineers; mechanical engineers; offshore renewable energy technicians; electrical engineers; onshore wind energy engineers; and solar energy technicians.
Mismatches and gaps
- Despite being a top priority for the industry, project managers with competences in ORE are not being sufficiently targeted by available educational programmes and training courses. The same also applies to ORE technicians.
- Compared to the past, when ORE-related qualifications and competences were integrated within broader programmes and courses addressing renewables in general, there is now a greater number of programmes and courses dedicated to ORE.
- A significant lack of VET programmes and courses was observed;
- Occupational profiles that are currently in high demand are those that are key to the ORE value chain, while many of the identified educational programmes and training courses address occupational profiles with a more supporting role in the ORE value chain;
- The alignment of skills demand and supply for engineers is more balanced, with the same tasks however, often carried out by different types of engineers;
- More work-based learning opportunities, such as internships and apprenticeships, are needed for improving employment opportunities for graduates (in the same company or responding to another job vacancy where basic working experience is needed – this is usually the case);
- It would be of great added value if additional industrial associations were to invest in providing targeted training, either via their own resources or by teaming up with key institutions. Such programmes / courses are often well respected and widely recognized.